The 10-year Bicycle Master Plan

Category: Articles

Time to complete: 10 years, beginning in 2007Estimated cost: $240 million (in 2007 dollars)Miles of bike lanes, paths, sharrows and signed bike routes in 2006: 67.6 Miles of those facilities recommended to be completed by the end of 2009: 201.2Miles of those facilities recommended to be completed by the end of 2016: 454.8

What’s already completed: Since late 2007, the city has created 38.2 new miles of bicycle lanes, 53.9 new miles of sharrow lanes and 28.6 new miles of signed local street connections. That’s in addition to the more than 300 bike racks that SDOT installs on the city’s streets each year. (At last count, there were more than 3,000 SDOT bike racks in Seattle.)

What’s next: In 2009, the city will continue to add bicycle lanes, sharrows and signed street connections. But this low-hanging fruit is becoming increasingly scarce, and the city will need to turn its attention to bigger-ticket projects such as shared trail construction and new bike- and pedestrian-friendly bridges.

Mayor Nickels has pledged to complete the “missing link” of the Burke-Gilman Trail—that’s the section of trail in Ballard that would stretch from 11th Avenue Northwest to the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks—by early 2010, at a cost of $8.6 million.It’s unclear which capital bike projects will come next. Possibilities include:

Building a bike and pedestrian bridge over Interstate 5 between Wallingford and the University District

Rehabbing the Ballard Bridge’s bike facilities or building a new bike and pedestrian bridge adjacent to it

Building a Chief Sealth Trail crossing over I-5 between South Spokane Street and South Lucille Street

The City of Seattle—working with SDOT and the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board—will decide which of these projects to tackle first.